For a long while, it felt like a time machine had returned the Seattle Kraken to the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Coach Dave Hakstol was in the house, as were the league-leading Colorado Avalanche. Cale Makar was soundly booed, and a rollicking back-and-forth game filled with goals, fights, a Kraken player illegally boarded, and even a penalty shot kept fans at Climate Pledge Arena on the edge of their seats.
The Kraken were already feeling buried under an avalanche – winners of just one of their past nine games – and that was before the Avalanche came to town Tuesday.
So we can understand why TNT intermission host Liam McHugh told his nationwide audience, “We didn’t see this coming.” The Kraken scored three 2nd period goals from Shane Wright, Jordan Eberle and Chandler Stephenson to carry a 3-2 lead into the 3rd period.
But the NHL’s best team showed why, scoring all three goals in the 3rd period for a 5-3 win. Nathan MacKinnon had two of them, his 27th and 28th, sandwiching a Brock Nelson power play goal that put Colorado ahead for good.
Seattle’s slide extends to 10 games (1-8-1), with a Dec. 10 overtime victory against Los Angeles their only win since Nov. 22.
In the composite NHL standings, Colorado has run its league-leading points total to 55 (24-2-7). The Kraken stand at 30 points, one point out of last place. Put another way, the Kraken in the last three days have lost as many games in regulation (two) as the Avalanche have all season.
Meanwhile, Seattle’s injury list may have grown again. Defenseman Brandon Montour did not return to the game after an early 3rd period fight.
1st Period
The four best scoring chances of the first 10 minutes surprisingly all belong to Seattle. Ryan Winterton, Matty Beniers, Brandon Montour and Freddy Gaudreau all test Avs netminder Mackenzie Blackwood.
The first shot that counts, however, comes from Colorado’s Artturi Lehkonen, deflecting a Martin Necas blueline wrister at 12:19. Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer, a former Av, couldn’t stop it because it couldn’t see it – Lehkonen not only deflected the shot, he provided a screen at the same time.
Speaking of switching teams, the first coach in Kraken history, Dave Hakstol (2021-24), is making his first return behind a bench at CPA as a Colorado assistant. He receives a warm reception following an unusual tribute video. Unusual, because it revealed his previously little-known Kraken victory ritual – coach Hakstol kicking a laundry basket in celebration.
In the final seven minutes of the period, the Kraken go on the power play twice and the penalty kill once, without changing the 1-0 Avalanche lead after 20. Shots favored Seattle, 11-7.
2nd Period
Shane Wright finishes what he starts to tie the game 1-1 at 3:03. He fires from the left circle, with the puck dropping into the crease around a mass of humanity. Jani Nyman’s first whack hits Blackwood; his second kisses the left post. Wright sweeps in to deposit the loose change.
Suddenly, Seattle has opened a shooting gallery in front of Blackwood. On a rush, Matty Beniers centers to Adam Larsson (Adam Larsson?) cutting down the slot. The Avalanche goalie makes a filthy post-to-post save on the Big Cat – but Jordan Eberle follows up, digging the puck out from Blackwood’s pads. While losing his balance, the captain backhands home the lead tally at 5:48.
Seattle kills a Mason Marchment minor, helped by eagle-eyed referee Kelly Sutherland. The call on the ice, confirmed by video review, is that Necas used his glove to trickle the puck over the line.
Marchment and Beniers get tangled up along the far boards in the Seattle zone. Marchment loses his stick to boot, affording Colorado an opening to tie the game. Sam Girard’s one-timer cleanly beats a screened Grubauer at 13:29.
As my Davy Jones pressbox colleague Zaiem Beg points out, Colorado does everything well – except their unexplainably pedestrian power play. Good thing, too, because Vince Dunn trips Necas, and for the third time, Seattle’s PK comes up big.
After Colorado’s Ross Colton boards Ryan Lindgren, it’s the Kraken’s turn to use traffic in front to regain the lead on their third power play. Eberle slides to the lip of the crease, close enough to distract Blackwood while Chandler Stephenson sends the puck netward from the right circle. Stephenson’s 7th, which may have deflected off Colorado defender Brent Burns’ skate, makes it 3-2 Seattle at 19:24.
3rd Period
Taylor Codomo Photos
A minute into the period, a pair of fights and much pushing and grabbing at the end boards behind Blackwood. Double minors for roughing are handed out to Colorado’s Burns and Josh Manson, and Seattle’s Montour and Marchment.
Grubauer starts the period strong, with sharp saves on Brock Nelson’s tip try and Gabriel Landeskog’s slap shot. But superstar Nathan McKinnon’s 40-footer deflects off Larsson and over Grubauer’s shoulder to tie the game 3-3 at 2:40.
The hockey gods don’t afford Seattle the same puck luck. Colorado’s Manson covers the puck in the crease with his right glove at 7:49. Eberle takes the resulting penalty shot and beats Blackwood, but pings the puck off the right post.
More Avalanche puck luck (unless MacKinnon meant to do this, always possible). With Dunn off for tripping, MacKinnon’s shot goes wide on the short side, caroming off the end boards directly onto the stick of Nelson. If Necas hadn’t whiffed a half-second earlier, the go-ahead goal would have been his. No matter; on Nelson’s game-winning PPG, MacKinnon and Makar each earn their 30th assists.
Up Next
The Kraken head out on a four-game Pacific Division road trips, with stops in Calgary, San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles.